Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the American Chamber of Commerce in Peru on Sept. 10 that no investment strategy works without security, and that Washington will back President Fujimori against criminal groups that now operate across borders.
Speaking at the Museo de Arte de Lima, Rubio said this was his second trip to Peru, after an earlier visit as a senator. He praised U.S. Ambassador Bernie Navarro and described the moment as one of unusual opportunity if the country can hold political stability.
“The main role of any government is security and stability,” Rubio said through an interpreter. “Without security, you cannot accomplish anything.” He argued that the threat in the Andes is no longer only domestic. Groups now move from Colombia into Peru, from Peru into Bolivia, and from Bolivia into Ecuador.
“If we don’t confront them and defeat them, they will eat the country,” he said. Working people, he added, pay first through extortion. Sovereignty is also at stake if criminal or terrorist groups control territory. “I’m happy that you have an administration with President Fujimori that is committed to confront these delinquents, these criminals, and we will provide the support that she needs.”
Rubio framed that help as self-interest. The same networks, he said, threaten the United States. Companies will not invest where they feel unsafe, and investors also need due process. Security and trade, in his account, have to move together.
He said Peru’s recent political turnover had been unusually fast, with three administrations in a year and a half, and that a more stable period now matters. He accused prior U.S. governments of talking about the Western Hemisphere without treating it as a priority. Geography, he said, makes deeper trade logical. Critical minerals are closer here than in Africa. The region is not in a conventional interstate war. Banking, commercial and social ties already exist.
Mexico was his cautionary example. Territory controlled by cartels, he said, becomes a U.S. problem at the border. Hemisphere insecurity, in that view, does not stay overseas.
Rubio told American firms already in Peru that the embassy and State Department want to clear barriers in the Peruvian system and steer more U.S. companies toward the market. He had come from a meeting and press conference at the presidential palace and said the new Peruvian administration’s first 40 days had produced several requests and early cooperation.
“You’re here because you have been working for many years. We want you to be able to more, and we want you to have new markets, new partners, and new tools available,” he said. He added that the work should help Peru, the United States and the wider hemisphere.
